Brexiteer Penny Mordaunt named as new International Development Secretary by under-fire Theresa May

Penny Mordaunt has been named the new International Development Secretary.

The pro-Brexit MP replaces Priti Patel, who was forced to quit after it emerged she had held a series of secret meetings with senior Israeli officials.

Theresa May faced a politically sensitive challenge in replacing prominent Brexit-backer Ms Patel.

Her decision to appoint Gavin Williamson as Defence Secretary after Sir Michael Fallon’s resignation last week was openly criticised by some of her MPs and Mrs May was anxious to avoid creating further unrest in her fragile administration.

Mordaunt, the Work and Pensions Minister, had also been viewed as a contender for the Defence Secretary role and gives Mrs May the opportunity of replacing Ms Patel with another female Brexit-backer, maintaining the sensitive political balance in Cabinet and the current split in terms of male and female ministers.

Prominent Tory Brexiteer Jacob Rees-Mogg had suggested that disgruntled Remainers could have been behind the leak which led to Ms Patel’s downfall.

He said that generally “conspiracy theories are wrong” because “people aren’t behaving according to some grand Marxist plan”.

“But nonetheless there are still some people who are still very bitter about the result a year ago and inevitably that colours their behaviour,” he told BBC’s Newsnight.

“If you go into how did Priti Patel’s visit come out in the first place, was it leaked by the Foreign Office, was it leaked by somebody at the Foreign Office who resented her and probably the Foreign Secretary’s role in Brexit, you may find something.”

Theresa May accepted the resignation of Ms Patel after she acknowledged that secret meetings with senior Israeli figures “fell below the high standards” expected of a Cabinet minister.